The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming an edible food container from highly viscous dough, and, more particularly, to forming such a container which is generally cone shaped.
Highly viscous dough, like pretzel dough, is distinctly different from dough commonly used in forming edible food containers such as ice cream cones. The thick texture of pretzel dough with its highly viscous nature precludes the application of known prior art methods for cone formation. For example, pretzel dough, because of its high viscosity, cannot be poured as other doughs can into a mold or cavity for baking. Therefore, in the baking and pretzel industry, there has been limited usage of highly viscous doughs in the formation of edible food containers.
The previous technology for forming an edible food container from pretzel dough involves extruding dough onto a male mold section. The dough covered male mold section is then compressed with a complementary female mold section to form the container into the cone shape. The container is perforated, dried, sprayed with a hot caustic solution and baked until edible. This prior art method has proven to lack cost effectiveness and to be inefficient. In addition, the prior art method fails to consistently produce acceptable quality products. Furthermore, removal of the baked cone from the mold often results in an unacceptably high percentage of cone breakage. These problems have contributed to a lack of commercial success of such pretzel dough edible food containers.
The present invention overcomes these and other drawbacks associated with forming an edible food container from pretzel dough using a mandrel having special features upon which the dough is baked. The present invention also comprises a commercially viable method of producing pretzel dough food containers utilizing the special mandrel. The method of the present invention provides for consistent production of high quality products in a simple and efficient manner.